Ten memorable story lines from 2025 sports in the Pikes Peak region.
A struggle to keep entities in the city
Colorado Springs saw its professional baseball team, the Rocky Mountain Vibes, close shop and the Mountain West announce it would move headquarters from Interstate 25 and Interquest Parkway to Las Vegas. The ProRodeo Hall of Fame is considering relocation to Wyoming and the city was not selected by USA Gymnastics for its new training center after being a finalist for the facility that will instead be built in Indianapolis.
None of these moves in isolation threaten the city’s position as a sports power broker, as it remains home to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the training center and more than two dozen National Governing Bodies and Paralympic Sports organizations (nowhere else has more than three), but it was not a positive year for the city from that perspective.
Down year for Air Force sports
There were exceptions –- like the women’s basketball team that had one of its top two seasons at the NCAA Division I level and individuals like gymnast Patrick Hoopes (pommel horse title at U.S. Gymnastics Championships) and Texas Tanner (fourth in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Championships) –- but it was overall a down year at the academy as NIL, the transfer portal and directives from within have complicated the already steep challenges. The football team posted its second consecutive losing season, going 4-8 and losing both games against its service academy rivals for a second straight year. The men’s basketball team went 1-19 in conference play during the 2024-25 season. The hockey team posted a losing record and the volleyball and baseball teams didn’t qualify for the Mountain West tournament.
The Falcons finished 105th in the Learfield Director’s Cup, which measures success across all sports, placing them just behind Navy (98) and Army (103).
Air Force Academy quarterback Liam Szarka (9) celebrates his touchdown to tie the game against Army in the fourth quarter against Army at Falcon Stadium. Army defeated Air Force 20-17. (The Gazette, Michael G. Seamans)
Emergence of quarterback Liam Szarka
Within that down season for Air Force football, there was an obvious bright spot in the play of sophomore quarterback Liam Szarka.
The in-state find from Aurora didn’t make his first start until the fourth game and missed the final 2½ games with an arm injury but managed to become the first Falcon to amass 2,000-plus yards of total offense since Karson Roberts in 2015. Szarka led the team in rushing (922 yards) and passing (1,294), became the first player in college football with three consecutive games of 200-yards passing, 100-yards rushing since Lamar Jackson and set a program and Mountain West record among quarterbacks with five consecutive games of 100-yards rushing.
Switchbacks fire coach and sporting director
The Switchbacks “parted ways” with coach James Chambers and sporting director Stephen Hogan just one season after the club captured its first soccerr championship.
The dismissals were announced in early November after a 10-13-7 season ended with an opening-round loss in the USL Championship playoffs.
Alan McCann was promoted to head coach and the club declined to fill the sporting director role.
U.S. Senior Open enjoys star-studded leaderboard
Padraig Harrington emerged victorious atop a star-studded and competitive U.S. Senior Open held in late June at The Broadmoor’s East Course.
Harrington’s 11-under par 269 topped Stewart Cink by one shot, with Miguel Angel Jimenez two back at 9-under. Ernie Els began the final round in the top 10.
It was a flawless staging of the event’s 45th playing (the third in Colorado Springs), and the USGA announced the event will return in 2031 and 2035.
Local Olympic-related outreach
The local connections to the Olympic movement –- particularly through the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum –- were tangibly felt at various times.
A vigil was held in January following a plane crash in Washington, D.C., that killed several members of the U.S. Figure Skating community as they returned from an event in Kansas that had also been attended by multiple Colorado Springs-based skaters, coaches and administrators.
At the Olympic Hall of Fame induction ceremony that welcomed a loaded class including Serena Williams, Bode Miller, Mike Krzyzewski, Phil Knight and Allyson Felix, the community was treated to a barrage of events that included a roundtable discussion featuring Olympic legends Bob Beamon, John Carlos and Tommie Smith and local clinics in soccer from Michelle Akers, volleyball from Misty May-Treanor and figure skating from Brian Boitano.
Sacramento Kings guard Nique Clifford gestures after drawing a foul on Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon in the first half of an NBA game Nov. 3 in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Nique Clifford drafted in NBA’s first round
Nique Clifford, a graduate of the Vanguard School who went to play at Colorado and Colorado State, was selected with the 24th pick in the NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings, who acquired his draft rights from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for a 2027 first-round pick.
Clifford’s role has grown during his rookie season in Sacramento. He is averaging 5.4 points and 3.1 rebounds overall but 10.6 and 5.6 over a string of five games from Dec. 20 through 28.
Reggie Jackson, from Palmer High School, had been the last local high school player taken in the NBA Draft, going to Oklahoma City in the 2011 first round.
Riley Cornelio, a 2019 Pine Creek graduate, was named the Washington Nationals Minor League Pitcher of the Year. (Photo courtesy of the Rochester Red Wings)
Local players excel in minor leagues
Pine Creek graduate Riley Cornelio was named Washington Nationals Minor League Pitcher of the Year after posting a 3.68 ERA in 134 1/3 innings across three levels, starting his season in High-A and finishing on the doorstep of the major leagues in Triple-A.
The 25-year-old right-hander was particularly dominant in Double-A, posting a 2.31 ERA in 12 appearances (11 starts) with Harrisburg.
Coronado graduate Trey Gregory-Alford also dazzled in his pro debut, making six starts for the Los Angeles Angels’ affiliate Inland Empire with a 1.42 ERA and a .180 opponents’ batting average. Gregory-Alford is listed by MLB Pipeline as the No. 9 prospect in the Angels’ organization.
The Classical Academy Titans celebrate winning the 4A flag football state championship on Oct. 25, 2025, at Trailblazer Stadium in Lakewood. Joshua Genz, Special to the Gazette
The Classical Academy enjoys banner season
The Titans brought home five state championships in 2025 –- boys’ and girls’ team titles in track and cross country, and flag football. The football team marched unbeaten until falling in the state semifinals as it tried to defend its title, the volleyball team didn’t lose a match to a fellow 3A team until the state tournament (where it advanced to the semifinals), the softball team won a game at the state tournament for the first time, the baseball team qualified for state and the girls’ and boys’ soccer teams each won games in the state tournament.
In the 2024-25 season, only Cherry Creek’s seven combined state titles were more than TCA’s five.
Air Academy’s Kinley Asp (2) splits the defenders to drive the lane against Doherty’s Addie Zaiger (2), Sontee Keys (0), and Jada Symons (3) at Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs on Dec. 4. (Laura Domingue/ Special to The Gazette)
Individuals thrive at the prep level
Perhaps the greatest concentration of local girls’ basketball talent ever found on the same court clashed in a January showdown between Pine Creek (led by Brooklyn Stewart, now a freshman at Oklahoma) and Air Academy (featuring Tatyonna Brown, now a freshman at Kansas, and Kinley Asp, who committed to Boston College this fall as a Kadets’ senior).
Air Academy won the thriller 49-48 and both teams went on to reach the state semifinals (Pine Creek in 6A, the Kadets as the 5A runner-up).
Other individual standouts from the prep scene included Pine Creek swimmer Madison Mintenko wrapping her career with four state titles in both the 200 and 500 freestyle (joining Cheyenne Mountain legend Anna Trinidad and Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin in achieving the feat), Coronado’s Oliver Horton blazing a course-record 14:48.4 at 3.1-mile cross country course at the Norris-Penrose Event Center and Canon City brother and sister Jack and Kate Doughty capturing state wrestling titles on the same night, capping seasons that saw them go a combined 79-1.